'US wants high-level engagement with China'

Washington, April 6 (IANS) The US wants to have high-level engagement with China, a senior State Department official has said.

"I think we always want to have high-level engagement in the US-China relationship. It's a very important relationship, and it's really broad and wide-ranging, and so we want to be able to establish that kind of good relationship," Susan Thornton, acting Assistant Secretary of State, said in a briefing on Wednesday.

Speaking on the eve of the first meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Thornton said Washington will be looking forward to make the meeting "very constructive".

"This is a chance for the two leaders to get to know one another. We want to have them establish a good working relationship so that they can, in times of both opportunity and crisis, reach out to one another and have a good rapport," she added.

Matt Pottinger, senior director for Asia at the National Security Council, said the first meeting between Xi and Trump will cover bilateral issues, regional issues and a variety of areas of cooperation.